Needle tables are conventionally used for preparing the elements to be assembled for the production of knitted fabric articles. The knitted panels are stretched and stacked over the needles which are placed on the periphery of the panel and in specific points of the pattern. Such stacking over needles makes it possible to stretch the panels and to hold them so throughout the cutting operation. Thus, each element of the garment is cut from a web of knitted fabric in which the stitch density reaches maximum homogeneousness.
The use of needle tables, however, is not completely satisfactory. Indeed, if the stack is cut with an electric cutter, the needles have to be retracted from the stack as the cutter progresses into it ; such removal causes a deformation of the knitted fabric especially at the level of the welts which tend to shrink up as soon as the needles are removed ; a staggering of the different layers of the stack may also occur, particularly on the edge of the stack when the cutting is performed along selvedges: the cutter then tends to side-slip when there is five to ten millimeters between the cutting line and the selvedge and the resulting cut is irregular.
To reduce these irregularities to a minimum, it is normal to place the knitted fabric over the needles with little only or even no extension, although this may be detrimental to the subsequent preparation for cutting.